Category Archives: Publications

The Spring 2014 edition of Quaker Higher Educationlooks at Quaker-focused, student leadership initiatives. Matt Hisrich leads off with a description of the Quaker College Leadership Gathering hosted last summer by Earlham School of Religion. Matt’s overview is followed by reflections on the gathering from the following students who attended; Riley Foley (Wilmington College), Grace Sullivan and Kiernan Colby (Guilford College), and David Reid (George Fox University.)

Next, Deborah Shaw (Guilford College), Jamie Johnson (George Fox University), Walter Hjelt Sullivan (Haverford College), Dan Kasztelan (Wilmington College), and Trish Eckert (Earlham College) provide descriptions of the Quaker leadership programs at their particular schools. As you read, you will see some similarities across colleges, but also recognize differences that make each of the school’s initiatives distinctive. You will also likely further appreciate the benefits of convening students and advisors from these programs. Hopefully, our Quaker colleges will continue to offer opportunities for Quaker student leaders to gather and learn from each other.

The final article in the issue, by Rebecca Leuchak, is a companion piece to The Art of Silence which Rebecca published in QHE last spring. Her exploration of silence is deeply insightful.

This issue is framed by memorials for two beloved and important figures in Quaker higher education, who both passed away in February. It opens with Wilmington College’s memorial minute for T. Canby Jones. An FAHE founder and beloved faculty member at Wilmington College, Canby inspired generations of students, colleagues and fellow Friends.

We close the issue with a poem from Stanford Searl’s new book, Quaker Poems. Stan dedicated this particular poem to another beloved Friend, brilliant scholar and a force of nature, Newton Garver.

FAHE is pleased to announce the latest edition of Quaker Higher Education. This issue of QHE features articles that attempt to take a step back and think about why we teach, how we teach, and what our teaching is meant to do for our students. All the essays in this issue grew out of presentations at the June 2013 conference of the Friends Association for Higher Education at Malone University.

Jay Case (Malone University) opens this issue, as he did the conference, with an appeal to consider our students as both thinking and desiring beings, with perhaps the thinking part being less important than we would like to think. He charts a way forward through the demands and expectations of our materialistic and utilitarian society by contextualizing our educational work within the Quaker spiritual and intellectual traditions.

Tracey Hucks (Haverford College) challenges us to embrace the challenges of diversity in deed as well as word, and move our education out of the classroom into the whole lives of our students and ourselves. Laura Foote (Malone University) informs us of the challenges facing women who speak out in the public sphere, throughout history down to today, and shows how three Quaker women, in particular, have dealt with those challenges, risen above their detractors, and inspired others to speak up and speak out.

Finally, Steve Chase (Antioch University New England) uses the example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to inspire us to be creatively maladjusted to the injustices of the world. He shows us through example how education can weave together knowledge, caring, and activism.
All these stories show us ways to break down the artificial barriers that attempt to compartmentalize and (intentionally or not) trivialize what we teach and what we learn. Holistic learning extends through history, through the classroom, out to the community, and into action.

This issue of QHE gathers uniquely Quaker voices to address some of the greatest challenges facing higher education today. Potentially disruptive innovation and financial crises are forcing most, if not all institutions, to reexamine our missions and the manner in which we carry them out. All the essays in this issue grew out of presentations at the June 2012 conference of the Friends Association for Higher Education. The authors respond to these challenges from a Quaker perspective, exploring what we might have to contribute to the discussion.

It includes two articles on the Friends Committee on National Legislation’s Internship Program, two articles addressing the value of and challenges posed by study abroad experiences, and a review of David Zarembka’sbook, A Peace of Africa: Reflections on Life in the Great Lakes Region.